Envelope Pushing

11.23.09 | 17 Comments

Did you guys see Adam Lambert’s performance on last night’s American Music Awards? It’s definitely the big story of the night. (Besides JLo falling! hee.)

In addition to Adam dragging a female dancer around by the ankles and pushing a male dancer’s head into his crotch, Adam also made out with his (allegedly straight) male keyboard player. After the performance, Lambert told CNN that the forceful smooch was “in the moment” and was not planned. Sure.

Adam told Rolling Stone, “Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out. We’re in 2009 — it’s time to take risks, be a little more brave, time to open people’s eyes and if it offends them, then maybe I’m not for them. My goal was not to piss people off, it was to promote freedom of expression and artistic freedom.”

Adam is right, female performers have been toying with this for years, and there is a double standard. Hopefully Adam will make boys smooching on stage more popular, and then someone will do a better job of it, because honestly Adam looked like he was trying to re-inflate his keyboard played instead of kiss him.

17 Comments

Hee! “Re-inflate him.” Love it! I don’t particularly like Adam’s music, but he is hot. I thought his performance was okay, but I knew that head-in-the-crotch move was going to make the watchdog groups lose their damn mind. And yes, there is a double standard. When Madonna kissed Britney, people didn’t seem to be as offended. But girl-on-girl seems to be slightly more acceptable than boy-on-boy. I do think America is becoming more tolerant, but it isn’t going to happen overnight. Sorry Adam, you ain’t changin’ the world today, babe.

Chris, I agree that he isn’t going to change the world overnight. But I think we need people like him because, well, someone has to be the first, you know? And I across the board dislike American Idol, but I like him. Although, he screams too much… I think maybe he tried to do too much in that performance. Like…. simulate oral or boy-on-boy kiss, just from a performance point of view. haha.

True, there was a whole lot going on in that performance. Whenever I see him I think of Duran Duran, circa 1985. Crap, I just dated myself, didn’t I? I’m old enough to remember when music was more about musical talent and less about image and flash. God, now I’m really dating myself. Better quit while I’m ahead.

Chris, I feel like the music of my youth was a lot about image & flash too, so I don’t know… I get frustrated sometimes with new music and other times, I love it. I go through different periods where I want different things from my music and sometimes all I want is meaningless pop music… Other times, I want more. When I was younger though, I wouldn’t listen as much to “popular” music and now, for some reason, I like it. Hmm…

On 11.24.09 kb said:

You need to prove you are a bad ass talent before you try to be controversial or express your talent or artistic expression. Being like Prince and Madonna is one thing, but your coming out performance should not be like a wanna be Brittany Spears. the song sucked, which did not help. His American idol stuff was way better. People need to respect the real talent before they can trip out on the weird shit.

Some 20 years ago I directed Hollywood funksters the Red Hot Chili Peppers in a video called Knock Me Down. During the passionate performance as the music builds to the highest point, Anthony gravitates towards the guitar player, John and plants a kiss of life on his lips. It was so real and heartfelt that we left it in despite what might be thought of as “homosexual” overtones. To me, as the director, it was as real as it gets. The label made me take it out and I did. I pleaded with the creative department and they felt me but corporate said take it out. Unfortunately at the time the Peps were not in a position to demand the edit stay although none of then even blinked an eye when they saw it. I’m not sure what Adam’s true motivation was but as Bobby Seale would say “seize the time”.

kb, you are ttl right. I mean, no one can name a Adam Lambert song… Does he just want to be known as the guy who kissed a guy on the AMAs? He should focus on his music and performances first and foremost.

Wow, Drew, that’s really interesting. Too bad it wasn’t left in! I would have liked to see Anthony and John kiss.

On 11.25.09 Kat said:

are we talking strictly in the mainstream popdiva oeuvre? because pushing the envelope is nothing new, and plenty of male performers do it. frankly, 2 seconds of generic choreographed simulated sex is practically common place in your standard popstar-gone-raunch dance routine. but the man kiss on the ama’s probably reached a wider audience who were fully unprepared for it. i know he’s trying to spread his wings and fly far far away from the idol roost, but he probably lost a lot of fans over this one. and gained a bunch too.

if you want gender role challenging, put peaches up there. saw her last nite, and she put on quite a show.

o. luv peaches! and yeah, if you want envelop pushing…she’s your gal. but we’re talking about primetime network television. a whole other world, where minds can be blown by boys kissing each other and lady gaga not wearing pants. shocking!
also, how was peaches hair?

On 11.26.09 Kat said:

she was wearing a giant hair.. upper torso-thing when she came on stage. hilar. she’s got the art of the reveal down pat. she changed outfits like 15 times on stage, and once she got rid of the hair-torso, she was rocking the mullet-hawk.

tried to find a pic of her hairsuit from one of the many jackasses with the dig cameras, this is the best i could find..

she also walked on the crowd, spit “blood” on the front row, and at the very end, convinced the dumbest attendees to take off their shirts & throw them at the stage. she was really f-ing with people, pretty funny. it was the weirdest crowd that night, a bizarre cross-section. and we got some horrid belligerent drunk c____s booted. sooo vindicating.

i love adam lambert i wish he wasnt gay.he is the cutest ever other than my b.f.-boy friend.i think it is ok that adam is gay its ok,im fine with it. when adam sings his high pich voice it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hot it gives me chills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!